COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



sciousness, but also by its difference from red- 

 ness, blueness, or blackness. If all things were 

 white we should have no knowledge of white- 

 ness. To constitute an act of cognition, distinc- 

 tion is as necessary as assimilation. As Mr.* 

 Mansel has ably shown, " The very conception 

 of consciousness necessarily implies distinction 

 between one object and another. To be con- 

 scious, we must be conscious of something ; and 

 that something can only be known as that which 

 it is, by being distinguished from that which it 

 is not. But distinction is necessarily limitation ; 

 for if one object is to be distinguished from 

 another, it must possess some form of existence 

 which the other has not, or it must not possess 

 some form which the other has.** Accordingly, 

 if we are to conceive the First Cause at all, we 

 must conceive it as limited ; in which case it 

 cannot be infinite : and we must conceive it as 

 different from other objects of cognition ; in 

 which case it is relative, and cannot be absolute. 

 Finally, we cannot know the Absolute, be- 

 cause all knowledge is possible only in the form 

 of a relation. There must be a Subject which 

 cognizes and an Object which is cognized. The 

 subject is a subject only in so far as it cognizes 

 the object, and the object is an object only in 

 so far as it is cognized by the subject. Elimi- 

 nate either one, and the act of cognition is de- 

 stroyed. Hence the Absolute, if it is to be 



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